Library · Microorganism
SARS-CoV-2
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SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. The first cases were reported in late December 2019, and the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020.
It is a coronavirus. Its genetic material is positive-sense single-stranded RNA, meaning a single strand that the cell can read directly as if it were the cell's own instructions. Under the electron microscope it is ringed by spikes, the spike glycoproteins of its envelope, which give it a crown-like appearance.
Those spikes are also how it gets in. The virus binds its spike protein to receptors called ACE2 on the respiratory epithelium, the layer of cells lining the airways. The spike is a key that fits the cell's ACE2 lock. And it picks up mutations: that is where the variants come from.
In brief
SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that causes COVID-19; the first cases were reported in December 2019, and the WHO declared a pandemic in March 2020.
Coronaviruses are positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses, and under the electron microscope they look like a crown because of the spikes on their envelope.
It enters cells by binding its spike protein to ACE2 receptors on the respiratory epithelium, and it accumulates mutations that give rise to variants.
The spike is a key that fits the cell's ACE2 lock.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingFeatures, Evaluation, and Treatment of Coronavirus (COVID-19), StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated